A lean, Olympian blonde and the very definition of “a tall drink of water,” Charlene Lynette Wittstock knows a thing or two about going the distance. Born in 1978, in the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Wittstock has been a world-class swimmer since her teens, an athletic career that includes national titles in the backstroke and breaststroke and culminated with the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she swam for the team from South Africa. Solitude, silence, stamina—this is the daily fare of the competitive swimmer. It also describes the life of a princess, especially a princess by marriage. Which is what Wittstock has been poised to become these last four years. As the constant companion, since 2006, of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, Wittstock has thus far acquitted herself with quiet strength and grace. Indeed, in the four years they’ve been together the comparisons to Albert’s mother, the late Princess Grace, have come fast and furious. Wittstock is certainly glamorous, dressed in unfussy Armani and often wearing her hair in a screen-siren wave that suggests Monte Carlo in the 30s. She has the level gaze of a lioness. And like Grace she has causes dear to her heart. Close to Nelson Mandela, Wittstock was deeply involved in the events of this year’s Mandela Day, and she now champions the Special Olympics of Monaco. Meanwhile, the press, in anticipation of an engagement between Albert and Charlene, has yet again reached for the phrase “fairy tale,” a term that in recent times has carried a shadow. With her swimmer’s shoulders and wingspan collarbone, Wittstock looks ready to carry anything.